Thanks to many generous supporters our 10/10/10 fund raiser is wrapping up on April 15th. We raised another $1000 last month – putting us within $73 of reaching our goal of $10,000. If all our readers could donate a dollar, it would put us easily over the top. You can use PayPal to donate – in the right hand column at https://www.vtlp.org/

When you visit https://www.vtlp.org, you will notice that we now have a blog. Just under Upcoming Events is the Recent News section. Here you will find something new just about every day. (If you know about RSS feeds, then you can watch our blog at feed://www.vtlp.org/feeds/.)

Later this month:

Come celebrate with like minded Vermonters on April 29 at the Capital Plaza in Montpelier at the Vermont Libertarian Party state convention. We have a great line up of speakers.

Ethan Allen travels through time to add some revolutionary gusto to the party.

Lunch: Seating for lunch is by reservation only. Reservation may be placed with Scott Berkey by calling (802) 728-6211, emailing[email protected]?or through our online reservation form (https://www.vtlp.org/main/vtlp-convention.asp). The price is $25 per person if paid in advance and $30 if paid on the day of the convention. The ticket for the speakers is included in the cost of lunch. A vegetarian option is available.

Directions: The Capitol Plaza is located at 100 State Street in Montpelier. Exit 8 off I-89, merge onto Memorial Drive. At second stop light take a left onto Bailey Avenue. At intersection take right onto State Street. Vermont State House is on your left, 1/2 block on the Right is Capitol Plaza Hotel. The phone number is (802) 223-5252.

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3. Libertarians call on the Legislature to act on Death with Dignity bill

March 13, Libertarian Party chair Hardy Machia spoke out in support of death with dignity legislation that would allow people to retain the right to make their end-of-life decisions themselves.

Libertarian Party State Chair Hardy Machia said, “Freedom starts with the individual, and each individual is the owner of his own mind, body, and spirit. The Death with Dignity bill respects this fundamental right by allowing individuals to make decisions about how they want to live their lives, and how they want to end their lives. We call on the legislature to act on the death with dignity bill [H.168] this session.”

The Libertarian Party looks with approval on Oregon’s eight-year-old assisted-suicide law that allows doctors to help terminally ill patients who wish to end their lives. The Party disagrees with the Bush administration’s argument against the Oregon law, that that hastening death with medication violates federal drug provisions. Libertarians believe that no federal or state provisions should truncate the fundamental right of human beings over their own lives and bodies.

Libertarians agree with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision rendered in Gonzales v. Oregon that upheld Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act by a vote of 6-3. “It is time for Vermont to pass similar legislation to take a more libertarian approach to matters that are so intimate and personal to our people,” Machia said.

The Death with Dignity bill [H.168] is currently in the House Human Services Committee.

****************************************************** 4. Vermont has Highest State Tax Burden in Country

Burlington, Vermont — March 31, 2006

A new report says Vermonters pay more state taxes than people from any other state.

According to the federal report released Friday, overall state taxation rose from $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion in one year. That’s an increase of 33%.

That pushes the per capita tax burden to $3,600, the highest state tax burden in the country, but the numbers do not paint an entirely accurate picture.

The new federal report is misleading. It turns out that Vermonters state tax burden is not as bad as reported, but then again, as one expert made very clear, Vermonters are still among the highest taxed in the country.

“One of the things that the Census Bureau did was this year was change its methodology,” said Art Woolf, University of Vermont Professor of Economics.

Woolf says it is the Census Bureau decision to include Vermont property tax payments that accounts for the misleading impression that Vermonters are paying the highest state taxes per person.

“So Vermont’s zoomed up in the rankings because it used to be that a lot of property taxes were seen as a local tax, part of it was a state tax and now they’ve just taken the entire property tax and put it in the state tax which is why we’re number one in the nation in total state taxes per capita,” explained Woolf.

Woolf points out that while state taxes may not be as burdensome as indicated in the new report, Vermonters nevertheless remain among the highest taxed citizens in the nation, especially individuals and families that make income over 60-thousand dollars.

“Well we are highly taxed. We’re one of the top ten states in the country in terms of our total taxes as a percent of the income we earn,” said Woolf.

Maine residents pay the highest overall taxes in the nation, while New Hampshire residents, by far, according to Art Woolf, have the lightest overall tax burden per person.

The following editorial appeared in the Burlington Freepress. Cal Thomas joins Alan Greenspan and others in calling for a strong third party.

Spending obscenities

By Cal Thomas

Mar 21, 2006

Not so long ago, in a country that now seems far, far away, Ronald Reagan told the nation: “we don’t have deficits because people are taxed too little. We have deficits because big government spends too much.”

He uttered those words in a year when Democrats controlled the House (the body in which spending legislation originates) and the national debt, according to the Bureau of Public Debt, was $2.3 trillion.

Last week, a Republican Senate voted to raise the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion. Senators quickly passed a record $2.8 trillion budget. What would Reagan say now? He said then, “the federal deficit is outrageous. For years I’ve asked that we stop pushing onto our children the excesses of our government.” He called for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and labeled the budget process a “sorry spectacle.” That Republicans are outspending the most reckless 1980s Democrat (and 1960s Great Society Democrats and 1940s FDR Democrats) is the sorriest spectacle of all.

The Senate vote increased the debt ceiling for the fourth time in five years. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since President Bush took office. That any Republican majority could preside over such fiscally irresponsible spending ought to be grounds for revoking their party membership.

This is mostly about politics, not terrorism. Republicans fear that only gobs of money will endear them to voters in sufficient numbers to re-elect their increasingly precarious majority. Why should Republicans be re-elected when one of the major reasons the GOP exists is to reduce the size and cost of government and free more people to do for themselves instead of restricting their liberties through costly and overreaching big government?

Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, rightly blamed out-of-control spending on his colleagues’ political nervousness: “They want to go and say they are helping people, but we are not helping people when we are selling out their future.”

DeMint might have added that it doesn’t help people to cause them to rely on and pay for ever-expanding government. Such a policy stifles initiative and personal responsibility and discourages incentive. It goes against the “Puritan ethic” that was one of America’s foundational principles.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, observed, “This budget could be the final nail in our coffin if we don’t watch it.” Graham said Republican spending habits are demoralizing voters: “I don’t think we properly understand the keys to our electoral success.”

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, defended spending an additional $7 billion for health and education programs, claiming those areas have lacked money in recent years. Is he kidding? The Bush administration has sired the biggest new entitlement program in history – a prescription drug benefit for the elderly. And let’s not forget “No Child Left Behind,” which massively increased federal education spending when there is no evidence of a connection between money and academic achievement.

Perhaps the real culprit is not Congress, but us. The Pew Research Center poll of March 14 found that only 55 percent of Americans rate the deficit as a “top priority.” That contrasts with the 1990s when the deficit resonated more strongly with voters. As long as we are willing to take the money in exchange for our votes, politicians will give it to us. This must change, not only because we are in debt up to our eyeballs, but also because many of the note holders are, or might become, our enemies.

Means testing for all government programs and term limits for Congress are the answer to never-ending debt, but neither is likely to happen.

Reagan said his favorite president was Calvin Coolidge. In 1923, when Coolidge was vice president, he said, “After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government.”

Coolidge left the presidency with a surplus. So did Bill Clinton. That a Republican Congress and administration are engaging in such promiscuous spending is obscene. If voting in Democrats -who in the past engaged in deficit spending – punishes Republicans, little will change. What to do?

Maybe it’s time for a strong third party, or failing that, another revolution.

Cal Thomas is the co-author of Blinded By Might.

Copyright ? 2006 Townhall.com

Find this story at: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/calthomas/2006/03/21/190629.html

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6. CALENDAR OF EVENTS

April 22 (10AM – Saturday): VTLP State Committee Meeting at City Hall in Montpelier. Use the back door, go up stairs, Memorial Room is on right.